Koh Lipe, We’re Never Leaving

Of course, that’s a lie, we’ve already left Koh Lipe, Thailand but for two glorious weeks we pretended like it was true. We rented a little bungalow at Bundhaya, set up our laptops to work and fell into a pattern of early morning swims in the ocean, a walk down the beach, breakfast at our favorite restaurant, a walk back to the room where Cole would fall asleep again and take a four-hour nap, while Drew and I worked. It was glorious (tip: if you have a toddler, beach access is a miracle worker).

There was hardly anyone else at the resort, we saw at most two other couples at any given time.

The island is only about a mile across but outside of the developed main stretch, it gets kind of wild in parts.

This was our favorite new Thai dish: Kau Kling topped with threads of kaffir lime leaves. I tried to google the recipe but couldn’t find it. Then again, it was originally listed on the menu as “Kau Klingon” which we can only assume is a little auto-correct magic. Or we’re eating Klingons. I think Occam’s Razor applies here.

If you get lost on the island, don’t worry there are signs everywhere. Of course they all point to the same restaurant, but they have free wifi, so who can complain?

And everyday while at breakfast someone comes and cleans our room. Then Cole spends the first five minutes after breakfast methodically dismantling it.

We kayaked around a few times, and Cole and I snorkeled out on the reef. On our last kayak trip, we nearly sank the boat (it had a hole in the bottom) which makes me thankful that A) Cole has this cool life vest swimsuit and B) I’m super buoyant pregnant lady because that was a looong swim back to shore (our friend Jason was with us and I demonstrated my cork-like ability to pop back up to the surface while attempting to dive down in the water and I think he peed his pants laughing). Pregnant ladies can not sink.

Cole hanging out with the shop owner’s daughter while we eat breakfast. He’s helping them sort rocks. He kind of loves it.

The monks visited our hotel one day, chanted for a while, then left.

I want that sailboat. We kayaked out to it and pretended like we were going to steal it.

And here’s me, with my baby bump. If there was a way, I would have easily stayed on Koh Lipe to have this baby (well aside from the lack of medical facilities, the distance from a good NICU and the fact that I’m not that crazy) but our Thai visas were expiring so we had to hot foot it over to Malaysia. Seeing as it took us 10 years to finally get here, I really hope it doesn’t take that long to come back.

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That's me, Christine Gilbert

I'm a world traveling mom who is trying to raise her children as multilingual global citizens while living overseas. My husband and I made a documentary about people who work online so they can travel. I'm writing a book. He wrangles the kids (Stella & Cole). I cook. We both work at home, which right now is in Oaxaca, Mexico. Welcome!